Group hopes to restore Chatham theater

Main Street in Chatham could get its movie theater back if a group of private citizens can raise $1 million in a month to purchase, renovate and operate the theater.

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By SUSAN MILTON

capecodtimes.com

By SUSAN MILTON

Posted Nov. 2, 2011 at 2:13 PM
Updated Nov 2, 2011 at 2:24 PM

By SUSAN MILTON

Posted Nov. 2, 2011 at 2:13 PM
Updated Nov 2, 2011 at 2:24 PM

» Social News

CHATHAM – Main Street could get its movie theater back if a group of private citizens can raise $1 million in a month.

The newly-formed Orpheum Theater Project wants to have the money by Dec. 1 to demonstrate the nonprofit's ability to purchase, renovate and operate the theater, president Naomi Turner said.

“Wouldn't the perfect birthday present for Chatham's 300th birthday next year be for the theater to be up and running by December 2012,?” Turner said this week.

The site at 637 Main St, is the same building that housed the local theater from 1915 to 1985. After that, three pharmacies - most recently CVS - were there.

The group seeks to create an art house cinema with a 50-seat screening room for independent and foreign films as well as educational programming, and a 160-seat theater for first-run films and simulcast showings of opera, theater and dance. There would be a state-of-the-art digital projector and sound equipment, a café and an art gallery.

The project got its start because of good timing and opportunities.

The CVS is moving from Main Street to its new quarters next to the Chatham Village Market. The closest movie theater – Regal's Harwich 6 – just closed last week to be renovated into a charter school. That leaves no movie theater between Dennis and Wellfleet.

Ronald Rudnick, who bought the building in 1985, gave the Orpheum Project three months, starting Sept. 1, to try to put a deal together.

Turner declined to disclose the purchase price but the sale would include the land, existing retail stores on the property and parking.

The building has a long history in Chatham. A 400-seat theater named The Orpheum opened there in 1916 and ran through several owners, and names. Over the years, it was the site of town meetings, high school graduations and live theater. When Rudnick bought it, he stopped showing movies but for five years hosted live theater and concerts featuring Ray Charles and other entertainers.

There were several other interested buyers in the property “but I'd love to see this happen,” Rudnick said Monday, confirming the handshake deal. “We're trying to work with local people to bring back the theater.”

The Orpheum group plans to finance the purchase, renovations and operations through tax-deductible contributions, memberships, ticket sales, financing from a local bank and revenues from the café and two businesses on the site. The group also will seek funding from the town's Community Preservation Act committee, Turner said.

“We're now in a massive fund-raising campaign,” Turner said. “So far the response from everyone in the area has been tremendous.”

The 14-member Orpheum board of trustees includes business people such as Turner, owner of Chatham Candy Manor and Sandy Wycoff, owner of the Epicure and Chatham Ts. The board also has Chatham natives such as Winnie Lear and those with skills such as Mike Berg, a builder, and Tony Guthrie, the current asset manager at the Wychmere Harbor Club who also works with Robert Paul Real Estate in Chatham.

The proposed cinema “will give that part of Main Street a soul and vibe it doesn't have,” Guthrie said Monday. He's been involved for 20 years with Chatham and is the former manager at the Chatham Bars Inn. He also was president of the Chatham Merchant's Association.

“This is not just for Chatham but for the Lower Cape,” he said. “It's preserving the essence of why people come to the Cape. We want this theater to be a slice of Americana, just like the band concerts and candy manor are.”